Some seniors have to wait months for a long-term care bed. Will this provincial plan help?

Premier Susan Holt speaks at the launch of a highly anticipated plan to address senior’s care in New Brunswick, at the Fredericton YMCA.

A plan launched Thursday to address New Brunswick’s lack of senior care doesn’t act fast enough to help seniors who are currently in the system, according to those who work in the sector.

The plan promises 624 new long-term care beds over the next two to three years and an increase in wages for personal support workers.

But at the centre of the issue is the number of people having to wait in hospital for a long-term care bed. Often seniors, who find themselves in hospital after a health emergency, stay when it’s deemed unsafe for them to return home without the proper supports in place.

And some, as reported by CTV News, have stayed for months – or well over a year.

Shelley Perry Poirier’s father, Arthur, spent 17 months in hospital before being moved to a nursing home. He died just months after that move.

Perry has spoken out since, on behalf of seniors still waiting in hospital for a bed.

“What’s going on in our healthcare system usually depict seniors as the villains ... They’re getting sick, they’re clogging it up,” she said. “But, sadly, sadly, I think that’s just smoke and mirrors to cover up a system that’s sadly in need of repair.”

Right now, about 37 per cent of hospital beds are occupied by alternate-level-of-care patients – people who don’t need acute healthcare, rather long-term residential care.

And those who work on the ground within the long-term care sector agree, warning the plan is too long-term and doesn’t address the current community needs.

Jan Seely, CEO of the N.B. Special Care Home Association said action is needed to retain the current workforce – which has a high turnover rate due, in part, to wages that are less than $20 an hour.

“In many cases, the pressure we’re seeing isn’t just about needing more beds, it’s about getting people to the right place faster,” she said. “That could mean returning home with strong home support in place, moving into a special care home either temporarily or long-term, accessing memory care for advanced dementia, or generalist care for increasing frailty. And when someone truly needs 24-hour nursing care and can no longer be supported in the community, then a nursing home is the right fit.”

The lack of immediacy is also what Richard Losier with the N.B. Association of Nursing Homes feels is missing.

“We’re in a crisis right now and seniors are feeling it. The providers are feeling it. But there’s no indication in that plan that we’re talking about a crisis,” he said.

Losier is calling specifically for an immediate increase in the hours of care for seniors in nursing homes, to 4.1 from 3.3.

Losier and Seely call the plan a good foundation, but say more action is needed in the short-term to care for the seniors currently in the system.

Ken McGeorge, who has studied the issues facing senior’s care for decades, told CTV News those seniors are in desperate need of attention.

“Some of what the seniors are dealing with right now, frankly, is dreadful… And the fix is long overdue,” he said. “The priority right now has to be to get those ALC (alternate-level-of-care) patients reduced seriously significantly. And we don’t want to wait a whole long time to see action on that.”

Beds promised across the province

The plan includes the replacement of six aging nursing homes, in Campbellton, Rogersville, Saint Andrews, St. Stephen, Île-de-Lamèque and Saint-Quentin.

Existing homes in Shediac, Fredericton, Riverview and Quispamsis will expand, adding 240 beds.

Another 360 beds will be announced later once a request for proposal process is complete.

It comes as the province grapples with an aging population, with 23 per cent of residents 65 and older – expected to increase to 28 per cent by 2030, according to the N.B. Health Council.

Those projections indicate that N.B. will need about 2,000 more long-term care beds by 2030 to meet the demand.

“We have to get ahead of this problem. We have to get invested in community. We have to get invested in home care and provide those supports so that the demand for those long-term care beds starts to go down as we reach the top of our population,” Premier Susan Holt told reporters.

The Holt government has earmarked nearly $1 billion dollars in the current budget for the seniors and long-term care sector.